It looks like we have been conned again by greenie busybodies. Reminds of a George Carlin video:

Advocates of banning plastic grocery bags often cite impacts on marine life and mammals, but they rarely attempt to quantify that impact. Unfortunately, many attempts to quantify those impacts are simply false or misleading. For example, one city council in Washington state was told â€śthe ecological impacts of this plastic include over a million sea-birds and 100,000 marine mammals killed by either plastic ingestions or entanglement.â€ť

In fact, the claim about harm to marine mammals and sea-birds has nothing to do with plastic bags.Â NOAA corrected the claimabout seabirds on its web page saying, â€śWe are so far unable to find a scientific reference for this figure.â€ť The only study NOAA can find does not deal with plastic bags or even marine debris, but â€śactiveÂ fishing gear bycatch,â€ť in other words, fishing nets that are being used at sea, not discarded plastic bags.

The TimesÂ of London addressed this very issue in 2008, evenÂ quoting a Greenpeace biologistsaying, â€śItâ€™s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags. The evidence shows just the opposite. We are not going to solve the problem of waste by focusing on plastic bags.â€ť

One of the most commonly heard claims is that plastic bags, and other plastic, have created the â€śPacific Garbage Patch.â€ť Some claim it is twice the size of Texas. This is simply false. Last year, Oregon State University reported that the actual amount is less than one percent the size of Texas. Oceanography professor Angel WhiteÂ sent out a release last yearÂ saying, â€śThere is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the worldâ€™s oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists.â€ť

Additionally, White notes that the amount of plastic in the ocean hasnâ€™t been increasing. For example, the Woodâ€™s Hole Oceanographic Institute found the amount of plastic in the Atlantic Ocean hasnâ€™t increased since the 1980s.